Chapter Three

With Pearl looking at me like that, thirty thousand dollars suddenly didn't seem so important.

I stopped talking.

But Alexander was still waiting.

He told me to come over. I said okay without really hearing him.

He noticed I wasn't with it. His face darkened, and he even forgot about Pearl—the girl he was so hung up on—and just stared at me with his brows drawn tight.

It wasn't until the comments brought up the female lead again that he seemed to remember himself. Right in front of Pearl, he yanked me into his arms.

And got exactly what he wanted: Pearl's eyes going red.

In that instant, it all felt so pointless.

I put my palm flat on his chest and pushed us apart to arm's length.

Then I rummaged around in my pocket for ages and finally fished out a ring of keys, which I tossed down in front of him.

"I only came to give you back the keys you left at my place." I held myself together and tried to sound like I was over it, but my voice shook.

Honestly, I had no idea what those keys opened.

Alexander's front door had a fingerprint lock.

But I was betting he didn't know that either.

Snickering broke out around the room. Alexander's friends.

I knew they'd always looked down on me. They probably thought, like the comments did, that I was playing hard to get again.

Something hot and furious shot up through my chest.

I raised a finger and pointed it at Alexander. "A good ex should act like he's dead! So don't bother me unless you have to—got it?"

Then, without the courage to look at him even one more time, I turned and ran, leaving behind a room so silent you could have heard a pin drop.

I didn't stop until I was out the front door. Only then did I lean against the wall and start to cry, choking on it.

Alexander dumping me—fine.

But Alexander picking Pearl? That actually hurt.

When Pearl took my parents and had me thrown out of the house, I was seventeen. Half the poverty and hunger and bullying I'd lived through since then had her fingerprints on it.

I'd been waiting to save up enough money and then—like in all those web novels—turn my life around and make every one of them eat their words.

How had Alexander ended up as Pearl's backer?

I bit down hard on my lip so I wouldn't make a sound, but it hurt too much, and I ended up hiccuping through the sobs.

Seeing me like that, even the comments went quiet.

[Okay, wait, the side character is kind of pitiful…]

[Right? Keep this up and I'm going to start feeling sorry for her.]

Kind of pitiful? I was extremely pitiful, thank you very much.

Finally, after I'd blown a snot bubble trying to hold it in, I gave up and bawled.

I was crouched on the ground with my face buried, crying like the world was ending, when I looked up and found a tissue held out in front of me.

The person holding it was rubbing the back of his ear with his other hand, looking at me with a complicated expression. "You like him that much? Enough to torture yourself like this?"

It was Jamie Sullivan. Alexander's younger brother.

When I didn't answer, he crouched down and wiped my blotchy face for me.

"I always thought you were just a big eater who liked money. I didn't know you loved people for real. Telling my brother off in front of everyone so he could move on—you actually had it in you."

He said it a little awkwardly, and a flush slowly crept up to the tips of his ears. It took him a while to work up to the next part.

"Holly Quinn, be with me. I'll treat you better than my brother did, I swear."

When I lifted my head and just stared at him, he scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "I mean—if you're with me, you're my girlfriend. I won't let anyone push you around. Whatever my brother gave you, I'll give you too."

"Ten thousand dollars a month too?"

"Yeah."

"Great. Then we're together."

Jamie was visibly thrown by how fast I said yes.

The next second, pure joy spilled across his face.

Before he could say anything, Alexander's tall frame stepped out of the shadows.

It wasn't until a comment drifted past—[LMAO, the male lead thought she loved him so much he bet his friends she'd turn Jamie down without a second thought]—that I understood. I had no idea how long he'd been standing there in the dark, watching me.

He'd just stood there coldly and watched me cry. It was only when he saw me say yes to Jamie that he came out.

His cold eyes went from me to the hand Jamie was holding tight.

The moment his foot moved, Jamie stepped in front of me and grinned at his brother. "What, you came to congratulate me on getting a girlfriend? You're always nagging me about it in front of Mom and Dad. Now I've found one, so be happy for me."

"Actually, skip the congratulations. I'd like some alone time with my girlfriend first."

"Your girlfriend?" Alexander sounded like he was about to laugh from sheer anger. There was an edge of gritted teeth in it.

Jamie played dumb and held up our joined hands for him to see. "Yeah. My girlfriend."

When Alexander's gaze landed on my bare ring finger, his pupils contracted sharply. The fury in his eyes looked like it might burn its way out.

It scared me. I shrank behind Jamie on instinct.

The comments started up again overhead.

[The male lead thought she loved him so much. They broke up this morning and she pawned the couple's ring that same afternoon.]

[Told you. She's a gold digger. Only our baby girl truly loves him and wants nothing from him.]

Maybe I imagined it, but after that comment appeared, Alexander looked even worse.

Jamie, being Jamie, wasn't about to let things calm down. He hauled me out from behind him, wrapped me up in his arms, and looked at his brother with open challenge. "What, are you sticking around to watch me make out with my girlfriend?"

With that, he cupped the back of my head like he was about to kiss me.

This was moving way too fast. Every muscle in my body went rigid, and I had no idea how to react. In the panic, I caught a glimpse of Alexander's fists clenched tight at his sides. That was always the warning sign before he lost his temper.

Right then, Pearl came out from the side and slipped her arm through his.

"What's taking so long? It's so boring in there without you." She never once looked at me or Jamie. She just pouted at Alexander, completely focused on him.

The moment she showed up, the irritation on Alexander's face visibly eased. He even switched to a gentle expression almost immediately and reached up to ruffle her hair. "Just needed some air. Sorry I kept you waiting."

In three years of being his canary, of doing everything to please him, I'd never once seen him that gentle.

That was when Jamie hooked a finger against my palm. I looked up. He rolled his eyes toward them and mouthed at me:

They were hooking up way before this. Knowingly being the other woman—what kind of person does that? And my brother treats her like a treasure.

His face made me laugh. Then I remembered Pearl and Alexander were standing right there, and my mouth turned down. The laugh died.